I recently had the pleasure of spending a week in Switzerland with about 30 other journalists from all over the world. We spent the week touring Swiss renewable energy companies and learning about Swiss strategies for energy efficiency. There were several highlights from the trip, but two pieces of information seemed to stick out.
First, the Swiss burn very few fossil fuels for electricity generation. In fact, they say none. But that doesn’t mean they’re off the environmental hook. They get 60 percent of their electricity from hydropower…and 40 percent from nuclear. They’re proud of the 60 percent, but more than a little uncomfortable about the 40 percent. The country is working to reduce that number with an increase in solar and wind power.
Ultimately, the Swiss hope to create a 2,000-Watt Society by 2050. This essentially means that the average Swiss citizen would use only 2,000 watts, or about 17,520 kwh, per year. Right now, they’re at about 5,000 watts. The U.S. is just under 12,000 watts. Surprisingly, Canada is at about 13,000 watts. Apparently the calculation takes into account transportation needs, and with a sparse population and lots of ground to cover, Canada – at least by this metric – comes in as one of the highest per capita energy users in the world. (According to this presentation, Iceland is No. 1 – at 18,000 watts per person per year – but Iceland gets nearly all its energy from non-greenhouse emitting geothermal power.)
Another really interesting part of the trip was learning about a German renewable energy law. If you’re a homeowner or business in Germany, and you have solar panels on your roof, 100 percent of the electricity generated from those solar panels is fed back into the grid. The government then pays a “feed-in tariff” on every kilowatt-hour you produce. How is this funded? By everyone else. Every other German user pays slightly more per kilowatt-hour to pay for the feed-in tariff. So, no matter what, you’re making money off your renewable energy. Talk about an incentive to use renewables! No wonder Germany has installed the most solar panels of any country since 2004, according to the presenter.